Children are real tonic of kindness for elderly
ON Friday, October 6, your headline article alerted us to the vulnerability of many older people living alone in Coventry. Here at Good Neighbours Coventry we are only too aware of the needs of the elderly who feel isolated; the vast majority of the older people we befriend do live alone. The Good Neighbours Coventry project runs city-wide. It is formed out of a partnership between HOPE Coventry, Age UK Coventry, and Together for Change. Our befriending scheme started in September 2016 and we now have over 100 volunteers visiting older people on a regular weekly basis. Great friendships are being built and Good Neighbours volunteers tell us what a positive experience it is for them, being privileged to spend between 30 to 60 minutes each week visiting an older person offering them friendship and company. It’s a simple but effective model, giving people who find it difficult to leave their own home the chance to connect with someone in person. Over the past few days there has been an outpouring of neighbourliness: children from Earlsdon Primary School attended a Harvest Service at St Barbara’s Church, Rochester Road and donated their harvest gifts to the Good Neighbours work that’s been growing in Chapelfields and Earlsdon. They collected gifts for 38 older people in total.
Similarly, the 42nd Earlsdon Cubs Pack have been thinking and planning for how they might help Good Neighbours project as part of their Our World Challenge and Community Impact award (Stage 1).
How lovely that these children are aware of the needs of the older generation! We thank these children, and all our volunteers from across the city, for the difference they are making to the older people, who we know regard their kindness as a real tonic. Jess Day-Pollard Project Manager Good Neighbours Coventry
No tears shed for travellers’ plight
CHRIS Youett’s sympathetic letter (Oct 19) regarding Irish travellers and their unrelenting persecution nearly had me in tears, but not tears of sympathy.
Once again we hear the tiresome liberal chorus of how travellers are victims of prejudice and hatred. They just want to live their nomadic lifestyle and preserve their culture and traditions, they cry.
Many who have been graced with their presence on an illegal camp will tell you this is far from the truth.
If the powers that be got their act together and ensured that these mobile communities paid their way regarding tax and National Insurance, as well as abiding by the law and respecting others, then I am sure many would suddenly abandon their nomadic lifestyle. Brian Nathan-Partridge Stivichall
Why powerful men get away with it
THE reality about Hollywood is that powerful men will always get away with abuse because they have world-class lawyers who can get them away with blue murder. Ian Harris Radford
Give your old round pounds to appeal
POPPY Appeal collectors in Coventry will be about from October 28 until the November 12.
If you have any of the old round pounds, then you are most welcome to put them in the Poppy boxes. Michael Smith Wyken